Who am I?

My name is Nemo. I was born in the middle of a Canadian winter many many years ago. Winter is all I have ever known of my homeland, for we left when I was but 6 months old. Since then I have moved around between France and Poland.

To describe myself best I'll let my interests talk for me. I listen to rock from the 60's to the 80's and jazz from before that. I love cars, old ones, from the 60's to the 80's, especially American ones. For fun I build stuff from junk I find lying around, sometimes I make something useful, more often than not I don't. Also, I like to travel, and surf, and draw, and read, I like a lot of things actually...

For now I'm a student. Or rather, I will be, once this grand scheme of mine is completed. In the meantime, I'll just call myself a fool with a dream.

The Grand Scheme

What is this "Grand Scheme of yours" I hear you say. Well it's this: I'm going to go from Warsaw, Poland to Hai Phong, Vietnam. By car. With a driver's license I've had since August. Alone . I plan on crossing eastern Europe, going through the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and then to Turkey. Initially I wanted to cross to India via Iran and Pakistan. Having given it some though, that route didn't seem like such a good idea. So how do I get to India then? well, hopefully the car will go on a boat, I'll go by plane, and we'll continue from there. Following India is Nepal, Bangladesh, Burma (or is it called Myanmar? I never know), Thailand, Cambodia and finally, Vietnam.

The vehicle

Now, the important bit. what machine shall get me there? What colossus of steel and rubber would allow me to cross such distance and varied terrain? The answer is simple. It's going to be a 1995 Mitsubishi L300 4WD. Beautiful isn't it?

For those that will mock me and say "But...it's a van!" Well yes, it is, but not any van. This one has offroad tyres and a 4 wheel-drive system. More importantly, it has been modified. I'll have a bed, a gas cooker, a shower and the almighty traveller's grail, a fridge. Not so bad now, eh?

Why?

"Why are you doing this?" you ask. Well it all started long ago, on a tv show called Top Gear. This show is what made me a petrol-head and gave me the love for cars I have today. One day, I stumbled across a Special, in Vietnam, where they go from the south, all the way up north on a road bordering the coast..."I'm gonna do that road".

Fast forward a few years, I've sweat blood and tears, but I made it through high school. I didn't like it, and truth be told, I'm not a model student. Others in my class have already long applied to universities. Not me. I don't know why, I just never got around to it. I felt like I wanted a break. I then did what everyone called a bad idea, I decided to take a gap year. What was I going to during this year though? From the depths of my memory a small voice piped up "remember the Vietnam special?". That was it. I was set. I was going to do it. A second voice then piped up "flying to Vietnam just to drive up one road? Why not drive all the way there?". and here we are ladies and gentlemen, the beginning of this story. What could possibly go wrong?